Electrical panelboard having particular neutral wire connecting means



April 4, 1967 H l. STANBACK 3,312,874

ELECTRICAL PAI QELBOARD' HAVING PARTICULAR NEUTRAL WIRE CONNECTING MEANSFiled Oct. 11, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 I IIKH i I: m? E Ki"?! jarmzalanac/ April 4, 1967 H I, STANBACK 3,312,874

ELECTRICAL PANELBOARD HAVING PARTICULAR I NEUTRAL WIRE CONNECTING MEANSFiled Oct. 11, 1965 5 Sheets-$heet 2 p 4, 1967 H l. STANBACK 3,312,874

ELECTRICAL PANELBOARD HAVING PARTICULAR NEUTRAL WIRE CONNECTING MEANSFiled 0G1. 11, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 I Y r 4 v/// //W/ ///I UnitedStates Patent 3,312,874 ELECTRICAL PANELBOARD HAVING PARTICU- LARNEUTRAL WIRE CONNECTING MEANS Harris I. Stanback, Lexington, Ky.,assignor to Square D Company, Park Ridge, 11]., a corporation ofMichigan Filed Oct. 11, 1965, Ser. No. 494,854 Claims. (Cl. 317-119)This invention relates generally to electrical panelboards or loadcenters, and more particularly to an improved insulating base andneutral wire connecting means.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved neutral wireconnecting means and insulating basefor an electrical panelboard.

'In the drawings, FIG. 1 is a fragmentary View of an electricalpanelboard constructed in accordance with the invention, the front coverbeing removed and only a fragmentary portion of the back wall of the boxbeing shown;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken generally along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the panelbo-ard of FIG. 1 taken generallyalong the line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken generally along the line 4-4 of FIG. 1,certain parts being omitted;

FIG. 5 is a top view of the panelboard of FIG. 1, certain parts beingomitted;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view of the panelboard of FIG. 1 takengenerally along line 66 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view taken generally along the line7-7 of FIG. 5 and showing a wire clamped to the bottom of a neutral barof the panelboard;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary sectional view of the panelboard of FIG. 1 takengenerally along the line 8-8 of FIG. 7 and showing a plurality of wires,some of which are clamped in the grooves on the bottom of the neutralbar and others of which are clamped in holes extending through theneutral bar;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the insulating base, bus bars, andneutral wire connecting means of the panelboard of FIG. 1;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a mounting pan of the panelboard ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of one of the dual clips of thepanelboar-d of FIG. 1 which cooperates with the neutral bar to form aconnector of the push-in type; and

FIG. 12 is a fragmentary perspective view of the neutral bar of thepanelboard of FIG. 1.

With reference to the drawings, a back wall portion 20 of a box of anelectrical panelboard is fragmentarily shown in FIGS. 1-3. A mountingpan 22 is secured to the wall portion 20 by a plurality of screws 24.The mounting pan 22 is best shown in FIG. 10 and includes a beadedmounting rail 22a, a mounting tongue 22b, a stop 22c, and a threadedhole 22d for the reception of a screw 26 (FIGS. 1, 4 and 6). Aninsulating base 28, shown best in FIG. 9, is secured to the mounting pan22 by the tongue 22]) and screw 26, the tongue 22b extending over a lugof the base 28 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and the stop 22c insuringagainst relative rotation between the base 28 and pan 22.

A bus bar 30 (FIGS. 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6) is secured to the base 28 by ascrew 32. The bus bar 30 includes three integral branch bus bars orextensions 30a, 30b, and 300, and one end of the bus bar 30 is formedinto an integral line terminal body portion 30d provided with a clampingscrew 34 for securing a power supply line to the bus bar 30. Similarly,a bus bar 36 is secured to the base 28 by a screw 38. The bus bar 36includes three integral branch bus bars or extensions 36a, 36b, and 360,and one end of the bus bar 36 is formed into an integral line terminalbody portion 36d provided with a clamping screw 40 for securing a powersupply line to the bus bar 36. As best shown in FIG. 6, the bus bars 30band 30c are spaced twice as far apart as the bus bars 30a and 30b, thebus bars 36b and 36c are spaced twice as far apart as the bus bars 36aand 36b, the bus bar 30c is interleaved between the bus bars 36b and36c, and the bus bar 36c is interleaved between the bus bars 30b and300.

The base 28 includes a pocket portion 28a which overlies a portion ofthe bus bar 30 and partially encloses a main neutral wire terminal body42 provided with a screw 44 for clamping a neutral wire of the powersupply system, a neutral wire connector or neutral bar 46 provided witha plurality of screws 48 for respectively clamping the return wires fromelectrical loads supplied by the panelboard, such as the wires 49 (FIG.8), and a plurality of suitable resilient clips, such as the dual clip50 shown in FIG. 11, which are disposed at the bottom of the pocketportion 28a and which have pairs of resilient wire-fastening tongues 50acooperating with the neutral bar 46 on the side thereof opposite theclamping screws 48 to form connectors of the push-in type for clampingother return wires from electrical loads supplied by the panelboard,such as the wires 53 (FIGS. 7 and 8), the neutral bar 46 preferablybeing provided with a plural ity of respective grooves 52 (FIG. 12) andthe tongues 50a preferably being provided with tip portions 50breceivable in the grooves 52. One end portion of the neutral bar 46 ismounted in a slot in the pocket portion 28a, as indicated in FIGS. 5 and8, and the other end portion is secured in place by a screw 54 which isthreaded through a tongue portion 42a of the terminal body 42 and into ablind hole in the base 28 (FIGS. 4 and 5).

The beaded mounting rail 2 2a (FIG. 3) is adapted to be received inmechanical mounting clips either of cartridge fuse pull-out switches ofthe type shown in copending application, Ser. No. 423,680, filed Jan. 6,1965, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, or ofelectrical circuit breakers such as a tandem circuit breaker 56 of thetype disclosed in US. Patent No. 3,134,051

I and a single circuit breaker 58 (FIGS. 1, 2, and 5) of the typedisclosed in US. Patent No. 2,902,560. The branch bus bars 30a, 30b,30a, 36a, 36b and 36c are adapted to be received in electrical terminaljaws of the circuit breakers, as shown in FIG. 3. The base 2 8 includesintegral barriers 28b, 28c, 28d, 28c, 28 28g, and 28h (FIGS. 1, 2, and6) in alternately spaced relationship with the branch bus bars 30a, 30b,30c, 36a, 36b, and 360. The barriers 28c and 28 are connected by a web28] to provide sufficient electrical clearance between the branch busbar 300 and the bus bar 36, which is offset between the branch bus bars36b and 36c as best shown in FIG. 2 to accommodate the web 28j. Ajunction 28k (FIG. 6) between the pocket portion 28a and the remainderof the base 28 provides electrical clearance between the branch bus bar36c and the bus bar 30.

While the neutral bar or neutral wire connector 46 is shown as being ofthe one-piece type, the invention also contemplates the use of suitableresilient clip means such as the clips 50 with neutral wire connectorsformed in two or more pieces, as when a conducting strip is assembledwith an elongated generally U-shaped member havingclamping-screw-receiving holes in the bight portion and wire-receivingholes in the leg portions.

I claim:

1. An electrical panelboard comprising an insulating base, an elongatedneutral bar secured with respect to said base, said neutral bar having aplurality of wire-receiving holes extending transversely thereof andspaced longitudinally therealong and a plurality ofclamping-screwreceiving holes spaced longitudinally therealong andrespectively extending partially therethrough into intersectcluding aplurality of said resilient clip means in said base respectivelycooperating with said neutral bar and thereby forming a plurality ofconnectors of the push-in type therewith.

3. An electrical panelboard as claimed in claim 2,

, wherein said neutral bar is provided with a plurality of groovesextending transversely thereof and spaced longitudinally therealong on aside thereof opposite said clamp ing-screw-rcceiving holes, and saidresilient clip means cooperate respectively with said grooves andthereby form said connectors of the push-in type.

4. An electrical panelboard as claimed in claim 2, including a pair ofmain bus bars secured to said base and each having a plurality of spacedbranch bus bars, said base having a plurality of barriers formedintegrally there with in alternately spaced relationship with saidbranch bus bars.

5. An electrical panelboard as claimed in claim 3, wherein said groovesare disposed in alternately spaced relationship with said wire-receivingholes longitudinally of said neutral bar.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,610,996 9/1952Rickabauch 317-418 3,001,172, 9/1961 Cornell 3 39-198 3,171,708 3/1965Salomone 3391-98 3,228,094 1/1966 Stanback et al. 339-242 3,265,9378/1966 Sturoiv-an 3'17119 ROBERT K. SCHAEF'ER, Primary Examiner.

H. O. JONES, Assistant Examiner.

1. AN ELECTRICAL PANELBOARD COMPRISING AN INSULATING BASE, AN ELONGATEDNEUTRAL BAR SECURED WITH RESPECT TO SAID BASE, SAID NEUTRAL BAR HAVING APLURALITY OF WIRE-RECEIVING HOLES EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY THEREOF ANDSPACED LONGITUDINALLY THEREALONG AND A PLURALITY OFCLAMPING-SCREWRECEIVING HOLES SPACED LONGITUDINALLY THEREALONG ANDRESPECTIVELY EXTENDING PARTIALLY THERETHROUGH INTO INTERSECTINGRELATIONSHIP WITH SAID WIRE-RECEIVING HOLES, AND RESILIENT CLIP MEANS INSAID BASE COOPERATING WITH SAID NEUTRAL BAR AND THEREBY FORMING ACONNECTOR OF THE PUSH-IN TYPE THEREWITH.